Berryman Pastiche

The original:



(Go from 4.14)

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored means you have no

Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes as bad as Achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

The Pastiche:

The earth, friends, is dying. We must not say so.
After all, the climate changes, the sea ebbs
We ourselves ebb and change
and moreover, my father told me as a girl
(repeatingly) "Ever to profess the planet's extinction
means you have no right to

its resources" I can see now that I have no
claim to its resources, because I am dead.
Life bored me,
The planet bores me, especially its universe
Galilleo bores me, with his facts and theories
as bad as Newton.

Who loves science, and empirical truth, which bores me.
And the heavy winds, & vodka, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

The pastiche was done using Berryman's original poem as a direct frame, as the form seemed too random to mimic creatively and still retain some reference. Instead, my main focus was to play with the ideas and feel of the poem, copying his reduction of grandiose themes to apathy. I found it difficult to mimic the confessional style without giving any of myself away, which is perhaps why it feels empty and hollow, and explains my choice to externalise the subject and focus on the environment rather than the internal. I felt that this poem was too obscure, too random to take anything of his character apart from a feeling of despondency and a self-frustration that entirely opposes the world he is describing, and comes across almost comic in its hyperbolism.
Admittedly, I have no idea what the purpose of the dog is in the poem, and thought it best to leave it as it was rather than trying to attempt to pastiche that as well. It seems to evoke a sense of loneliness, that it is leaving him behind for something of infinite possibility, but I didn’t understand why it was ‘somehow’, as though it was of some unknown but questionable purpose, nor of what relevance its leaving behind of its ‘wag’ is, apart from the fact that he appeared to quite enjoy saying the word in his video.
I found in hindsight that I had not mirrored Berryman's erratic grammatical mistakes, for example 'heavy bored' was replaced with 'died', which was simple and overdramatic but still made sense. I tried to convey the arrogance I felt his original poem to have, that figures such as Achilles are somehow inferior, and that the ‘gripes’ they had are of less consequence than his own. To play on this I used figures such as Galileo and Newton, who are infinitely great men, and yet ‘inferior’ in their dullness (though I don’t actually think this!)
The theme of the poem fits in with the melodramatic nature of the confessional poets. Nearly all of them seemed to kill themselves, and their poems seem to be depressing and maudlin, which is what I tried to parody in my attempt.